Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe RSD4/5's in SoCal

I know I have posted these before but here they are again


Seems like the railfan community  tried to ignore these engines while in SoCal. They did a good job !


#1&2 are in Hemet, California of the San Jac Turn helping the Ramona By Rail excursion train. I did not take these but fellow TO member DRGWBob and I did ride one of these excursions to Hemet in 1968, This could have been the trip Bob and I were on.


#3   While my dad was at work in Downtown Barstow I wondered around the Santa Fe Shop area and never once told to leave. #3 I also have a roster shot but can't seem to find it right now, This slide is on 828 Kodachrome 25 Film. Same general size as 35mm but no perferations. A paper back film. I was 18 when I took this shot.


Thanks for looking and if you have any Santa Fe RSD4/5 shots in SoCal, please post them.


Jay

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I used to replace radios on those RSD4/5s in San Bernardino.  By the time I worked on them, they were mostly in yard service--I don't think the "power desk" wanted them out on the road.  I definitely remember 2140--I may even have one of the number windows that I removed after it was written off.  A few of them lasted long enough to be renumbered into the 9100-series, but there were probably less than half a dozen still in service by then.  I used to see them on the 2nd District Local in 1967-68; there were a pair of them in Monrovia when I went to the track one morning to get the last #20 (The Chief) heading east.  One of the crewmen asked why I was taking pictures, and when I told him it was the last #20 he said, "Good!  We won't have to go into the hole for that thing anymore."  A few years later, the Monrovia siding disappeared, but today it has returned as the eastward track for the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

Did Santa Fe have the short hood as "front?"  I know most RS(D)s? had the long hood as front.

Great bunch. Never rode one, remember ads in the paper, saw one once in San Bernardino come off the Second District then take the hand throw switch around the wye that connected to the "short way" near Highland Ave. Power was three "torpedo boat" Geeps. Don't know why I don't have any shots? This was during one of my lunch breaks between riding the eastbound "Wilmington Turn" from Watson Yard to San Bernardino and waiting for the afternoon "Turn" to take me back home. Santa Fe was short hood front.
JB

Jay:

A few years ago, I posted a few shots of some 2100's in 1968 going up Box Springs Canyon.

Steve

Steve, could you please repost those?

Thanks
Out

SGillings Wrote:

> A few years ago, I posted a few shots of some
> 2100's in 1968 going up Box Springs Canyon.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1724038
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1725099

I will tomorrow or Tuesday.  I'm out of town now.

Steve

DNRY122 Wrote:
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. when I went to the track one morning to
> get the last #20 (The Chief) heading east.  One
> of the crewmen asked why I was taking pictures,
> and when I told him it was the last #20 he said,
> "Good!  We won't have to go into the hole for
> that thing anymore."

Sounds like some of the rocket scientists I worked with in Richmond.  Would have served him right if he got bumped off his job because of the elimination of nos. 19 & 20.

Saw these units on the Harbor sub in Torrance and the Redondo District in Redondo Beach. No pics too young for a camera.

Evans, thanks a lot, and Steve, I went to UCR, never shot pictures, paid too much attention to school!

Out

Evan, thank you for the links.

Out, while at UCR, I also caught the last passenger runs of the PA's on the remnants of the Grand Canyon in 1967/1968.  Videos were posted some years ago.

Steve

 The vast majority of roads operated ALCO RS1, RS2, RS3, RSD4 and RSD5 long hood forward.
ATSF and SP were exceptions.  There were a few others, as well.  As an easterner I've
always found it odd to see them set up to operate them short hood forward.

SR-RL_Nr_10 Wrote:
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> Did Santa Fe have the short hood as "front?"  I
> know most RS(D)s? had the long hood as front.

All Santa Fe hood units, EMD, Alco, FM were short hood front.  The
only hood units NOT short hood front were the center cab Baldwin's
they had.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote:

> All Santa Fe hood units, EMD, Alco, FM were short
> hood front.  The only hood units NOT short hood front were the
> center cab Baldwin's they had.

As far as I know, all of Santa Fe's RS-1's (2394-2399) were long hood front throughout their careers.  Their one RS-2 #2099, an ex-demonstrator, came with dual controls but with the long hood designated the front.  At some point in the 1950's, the order of the universe was reversed and 2099's short hood became the front.  Oddly enough, the very last standard cab hood units Santa Fe acquired, the MK1200G's, came set up with the long hood as the front despite having low noses and spacious windshields.  They were also quickly re-arranged and the short hood redesignated the front.